Hey all. Breakdown for me 1L was a bit rough. Straight Bs in all my classes that weren't year long. The problem is that I´m just not sure what I did wrong. I've only met with one professor so far and he really only gave me a pretty unhelpful "you need stronger arguments and analysis." I meet with the others soon.

I feel like I'm really missing something but I'm not sure where to begin. It's probably worth noting that I have As in my year long classes (midterms were given). I know this sounds vague, but I feel like I took good notes and understood the material. The only thing I didn't do was make my own outline from scratch (I used previous students and just modified the hell out of them, a strategy that worked for other classes).

so you're near the bottom third of the class at least... I asked because straight Bs at a t6 isn't that bad... Are you seeing the "forest" before making all the changes to other people's outline? Are you putting on paper the ideas of the professor and the way he likes to refer to things? An outline should be a checklist. You should see each page and understand the concepts completely without having to read about it any further.

ConfusedL1 wrote:Hey all. Breakdown for me 1L was a bit rough. Straight Bs in all my classes that weren't year long. The problem is that I´m just not sure what I did wrong. I've only met with one professor so far and he really only gave me a pretty unhelpful "you need stronger arguments and analysis." I meet with the others soon.

I feel like I'm really missing something but I'm not sure where to begin. It's probably worth noting that I have As in my year long classes (midterms were given). I know this sounds vague, but I feel like I took good notes and understood the material. The only thing I didn't do was make my own outline from scratch (I used previous students and just modified the hell out of them, a strategy that worked for other classes).

Rando advice, take it or leave it. Stop taking notes and listen in class (just take general notes). The professor is TELLING YOU what he / she wants to see on her exam. Read the readings - blows my mind this place's advice to ignore reading and rely on other people's summaries. Your professor makes a plan at the beginning of the year - like any good author, they write the conclusion before filling in the rest. They are TELLING YOU what you need as the year progresses. Granted - this place also says play to your professor, but too often I see "find a A+ outline from the year before". Pet peeve of mine - that outline you're working off was written by an A+ student who wrote it themselves. And to foreclose the "they got it from someone else" argument - someone was the source. And the source will beat you in class if you ever had to test against them.

The professors have given you - spoon feed - given you hours of discussion - on what points they want to hit. "Ignore the readings, get a 2Ls outline, paying attention in class doesn't matter" - jesus christ just listen.

Followers hope the wave they hope to ride carries them along. Leaders make the wave.

EDIT: You didn't say this, but don't be a scrivener. The student writing furiously to make a transcript of the class hasn't heard a word and is constantly playing catch up. Law school isn't verbatim, its concept. Fucking listen. And to put too fine a point on it - no court reporter is a lawyer.

ConfusedL1 wrote:Hey all. Breakdown for me 1L was a bit rough. Straight Bs in all my classes that weren't year long. The problem is that I´m just not sure what I did wrong. I've only met with one professor so far and he really only gave me a pretty unhelpful "you need stronger arguments and analysis." I meet with the others soon.

I feel like I'm really missing something but I'm not sure where to begin. It's probably worth noting that I have As in my year long classes (midterms were given). I know this sounds vague, but I feel like I took good notes and understood the material. The only thing I didn't do was make my own outline from scratch (I used previous students and just modified the hell out of them, a strategy that worked for other classes).

Don't discount the possibility of you reading a pattern when it's just noise. Outlining is overrated-what you want to do is do practice exams until you're blue in the face. You know that crappy feeling you get when you are faced with a hypo and aren't confident about how to write out the answer? Better to get that out of your system now, rather than experience that during the actual final.